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"And when you grow up, when you say you wanna work with animals, everyone always tells you, you wanna be a veterinarian, and realize it's actually the training and the overall husbandry that I liked much better than the actual veterinary care. My name is Sarah Patterson. I'm the Assistant Bird and Mammal Curator here at St. Augustine Alligator Farm. St. Augustine Alligator Farm was actually established in 1893, which makes us one of the oldest zoos in the country. In addition to alligators, we now have all 24 species of crocodilian, and about 50 species of birds and mammals. So, birds and mammals, just like a dog or cat that you may have at home, have very high energy needs, so a lot of our day consists of doing things like diet preparation, feeding, cleaning. We also wanna make sure that they're provided with mental stimulation, so giving them different forms of enrichment, as well as maintaining their exhibit, so any kind of construction that needs to be done on the exhibit, changing perching around so they constantly get new environments, and then the feeding and cleaning starts back over again. We also do several shows here throughout the day to teach guests about the different species that we do have here, both native species in Florida, and species of the South and Central American rainforest. Being here, there's several different species that I have the opportunity to not only see on a daily basis, but to work with that some people never get to see or experience the rest of their lives, so being here, working with these species, helping to manage their population in a sustainable way, so that future members can enjoy them, is something that we're really excited to contribute to."
<https://grainger-prod.adobecqms.net/content/grainger/know-how/us/en/inspiration/kh-video-everyday-heroes-bird-and-mammal-curator>